Your Money New York - Financial Calculators

The following links connect you with financial calculators that can help you "do the math" to assess your financial position and needs, and to figure out how to reach your financial goals, from college or retirement planning to savings and investments. Each of these calculators provide instructions to help you get the best results possible, and allow you to try out different estimates and scenarios.

Generally, you will need to gather some information to use these calculators effectively. For instance, in the "College Planning" section, you will need to find out how much tuition costs at the colleges you are interested in, as well as have your own personal financial information available.

College planning

• The New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) provides many college planning calculators, including tools to help you estimate your college savings needs, and any Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) awards you may be eligible for, and to project future tuition costs.

• The U.S. Department of Education has college-related calculators for the Federal Direct Student Loan (FDSL) Program. These calculators and interactive tools can help you create a budget for college, estimate your student loan repayments, and calculate potential loan consolidation savings.

Credit card debt and loans

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides a credit card repayment calculator to help you estimate when your credit card debt will be paid off if you make the minimum payments, based on your balance information and interest costs or Annual Percentage Rate (APR). Once you enter that information, it then provides calculators to show you how you can pay off your credit card debt sooner. It allows you to estimate how much your payments should be to allow you to pay off your balance within whatever number of years you choose.

• You can estimate how much installment loans, such as car loans, may cost you by using HESC's Loan Repayment Calculator. Although it is designed to estimate the repayment of student loans, if you enter the amount of any loan, the annual interest rate or APR, and the term of the loan (whether it is three, five, or 10 years, for example), the calculator will give you an estimate of your monthly payments, the total interest you will have to pay, the total cumulative payment and the minimum salary they recommend you have to handle the payments.

• The Consumer Protection Board provides links to calculators to estimate how much you will pay in credit card interest and how long it will take to pay off the current balance on your credit card.

Home buying

• Ginnie Mae provides several home buying calculators that allow you to compare whether it is better for you to buy or rent, determine if you can afford to buy a home, and estimate what size loan you might qualify for.

• The Federal Reserve Board offers a mortgage comparison calculator that allows you to compare monthly mortgage payments and the amount of equity you'll build for fixed and adjustable rate mortgages.

• The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta offers a mortgage calculator to determine if you would qualify for a specific mortgage product based on your financial profile and your lender’s underwriting criteria.

Savings and investing

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provide links to several investment-related tools to assist you in making sound investment decisions, including savings, loans, mutual fund costs, tax-free vs. taxable yield, and other planning calculators.

• The U.S. Treasury Department provides calculators to determine the current and future value of your savings bonds, as well as three calculators to estimate: the earnings growth of your savings bonds, the tax advantage of savings bonds, and a savings planner.

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides a tax withholding calculator to help you make sure that you're having the right amount of income tax withheld from your pay, so you don't end up owing the government too much at tax time.

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) provides a calculator to determine your FDIC insurance coverage for each FDIC-insured bank where you have deposit accounts.

Retirement planning

• The Social Security Administration (SSA) provides a Social Security benefits calculator to estimate what you may be eligible to receive in Social Security benefits to help plan for your retirement.

• The U.S. Department of Labor offers a guide called Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning, available online or by calling 1-866-444-3272. This guide offers a step-by-step approach to retirement planning, and includes interactive worksheets and calculators to assist you.